Hard Drive now unformatted??

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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golferdude
Posts: 4
Joined: 16 Jun 2012, 16:21

Hard Drive now unformatted??

#1 Post by golferdude »

I have a WD Raptor 150 GB drive that wasmy boot drive. All of the sudden it says the drive is unformatted do you want to format it now? I googled the issue and saw a thread about TestDisk. I downloaded it and have been running it. It is at the point of anyalyzing the cylinders. It says:

150 GB/139 GiB - CHS 18241 255 63
Analyzing Cylinder 18240/18240 99%

HPFS - NTFS 0 1 1 18239 254 63 293025537

It has been stuck at this point for over 2 hours. Is this normal? Should I do something else?

Thanks.

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Fiona
Posts: 2835
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 17:19
Location: Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart - Germany

Re: Hard Drive now unformatted??

#2 Post by Fiona »

Looks like that you've bad sectors.
If TestDisk scans bad sectors it might hang.
Normally I recommend to create an image or clone the disk.
But sometimes it was a solution to list files and vopy/backup them to another intact disk/partition.
Could you diagnose your boot sector and have a try to list your files?
Like in this case;
http://forum.cgsecurity.org/phpBB3/part ... h-t14.html
If you're able to list your files, please have a try to copy them.
It might be possible if TestDisk gets to a bad sector that TestDisk hangs or skips this file to copy.
In case, don't stress your disk as much and stop TestDisk.
Please let me know.
Might be also possible that your file system is faulty and TestDisk doesn't list a file.
Datarecovery software would be a safe solution.
Also you can test your disk using CrystalDiskInfo.
http://crystalmark.info/software/Crysta ... dex-e.html

Fiona

golferdude
Posts: 4
Joined: 16 Jun 2012, 16:21

Re: Hard Drive now unformatted??

#3 Post by golferdude »

Well it finally came back and said structure was ok. I messed up and quit before listing the files.

I found the step by step guide afterwards... :( So I am doing a quick search again. Once I finish that, lists the files, if they are correct, save the structure to disc? I only had one partition. Also, when it did come back and say the structure was ok, it only showed 18239 cylinders not the 18241. Should I not worry about that and just write the structure if the directory and file listing is ok?

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Fiona
Posts: 2835
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 17:19
Location: Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart - Germany

Re: Hard Drive now unformatted??

#4 Post by Fiona »

If the amount of cylinder is changed, please watch the amount of heads also.
After recovery your partition will be visible to windows.
If there any bad sectors, windows could hang (due to memory errors).
That's why I recommended to check your disk using CrystalDiskInfo to determine the S.M.A.R.T values and status of your disk.
If it's not good, you should have a try to copy your data.
Bad sectors don't have to be physically damaged.
It's possible that they're softbads and chkdsk can repair them.
Chkdsk is a utiliy to have a try to repair a file system but not to recover data.
If your disk would be in a good shape, you can recover your partition directly.

Fiona

golferdude
Posts: 4
Joined: 16 Jun 2012, 16:21

Re: Hard Drive now unformatted??

#5 Post by golferdude »

Fiona wrote:If the amount of cylinder is changed, please watch the amount of heads also.
After recovery your partition will be visible to windows.
If there any bad sectors, windows could hang (due to memory errors).
That's why I recommended to check your disk using CrystalDiskInfo to determine the S.M.A.R.T values and status of your disk.
If it's not good, you should have a try to copy your data.
Bad sectors don't have to be physically damaged.
It's possible that they're softbads and chkdsk can repair them.
Chkdsk is a utiliy to have a try to repair a file system but not to recover data.
If your disk would be in a good shape, you can recover your partition directly.

Fiona
Update: I tried to list the files and it says the filesystem is damaged. I then ran CrystalDiskInfo and the status is Caution due to current pending sector count. I am not sure what that means. Any thoughts?

User avatar
Fiona
Posts: 2835
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 17:19
Location: Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart - Germany

Re: Hard Drive now unformatted??

#6 Post by Fiona »

Each disk has spare sectors.
If you have pending sectors, it means they could be replaced by spare sectors or repaired using chkdsk.
It's depend how many.
If you've physically damaged sectors, you should replace your disk or using warranty.
A safe solution in your case would be datarecovery software.
Datarecovery software is read only and you have to copy/backup your recognized data to another intact disk/partition.
PhotoRec can carve data from a seriously damaged file system.
But it doesn't keep file names nor directories.
Otherwise you'd need commercial datarecovery software.
Chkdsk is only intended to repair a file system.
Using chkdsk to recover data can help or make datarecovery impossible, because it can make changes to the file system and files and render them useless.
Changed files are not reversible.

Fiona

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